Starting point of ground-breaking projects

To shape the future, you need top-class equipment. The new test tower offers unparalleled opportunities and boasts sophisticated technologies and features – it’s a one-of-a-kind research center for us and a must-see destination for the region’s tourists and residents.

Deep insight

In the 12 different shafts, we will test and certify the elevator solutions of the future with maximum speeds of 64.8 km/h and testing conditions not available anywhere else. Three shafts are reserved for our MULTI system. A part of the shafts ends at half of the height of the tower. The emerging volume in the top half is used as an air cell: All heat generated by devices such as motors and computers is stored there, then transmitted via heat exchangers to the rooms requiring heating.

At 220 meters height the conference level is located. Germany’s highest viewing platform open to the public (232 meters) will give visitors a 360 degree view all the way to the Swabian Alb – and even to the Swiss Alps on very clear days. Travelling up with the glass elevator will be another great experience.

Viewing platform (height 232 m)

Conference level (height 220 m)

Multimedia room, foyer

Customer lobby, foyer

Entrance

Impressive elevator technology

In February and March 2016 the thyssenkrupp elevator plant in Neuhausen delivered the two drive units for the test TWIN elevators and the drive for the visitor elevator to the test tower site in Rottweil.

The first elevator was installed by February 2016 and taken into operation as a construction elevator at the end of that month. The future fire service elevator, acting as a temporary construction elevator, has replaced the external Alimak construction lift, which was dismantled at the end of March. The installation of the fire service elevator at the beginning of the year had to overcome some particular challenges: First of all it had to be done with no intermediate floors in the tower, as they had not yet been installed at that time – the concrete tube was open to the ground. The elevators were installed without scaffolding using a self-propelled installation platform. Rottweil was also experiencing extreme temperatures as low as minus 18°C at the time the drives were being hoisted into position. Snow and ice lay on the tower platform. And the tower also moved much more under the influence of the wind and sun, as the tuned mass damper was not yet in operation at that time.

1

Elevator technicians...

take delivery of a 6.5 ton drive unit on a sunny but freezing cold day.

2

Preparing to lift...

a drive unit: To attach the crane hook a colleague had to climb onto the drive using a ladder.

3

Hoisting the...

6.5 ton drive unit for the upper cab.

4

The high-top crane...

lowers the drive unit into the tower from above with pinpoint accuracy.

5

Lifting the...

drive units into the machine room.

At almost 2 meters high the SF 700 drive, which among other things will be used for the visitor elevator, is as tall as a man and even without its frame weighs 6,500 kilograms. The Liebherr 280 EC-H 12 Litronic high-top crane, which at the time was still installed on the test tower, lifted the drive effortlessly and lowered it carefully from above into the tower with pinpoint accuracy. As so many times, the precision with which the crane operator worked was truly impressive.

In the machines rooms at heights of 217, 222, 226 and 240 meters, the drives and the deflector sheave were moved into position. They are expected to be in operation here for the next 40 years, or 40,000 operating hours. The three TWIN machine room levels were built with the aid of steel scaffolding before installation of the elevator components.

In May the panoramic cab of the visitor elevator was then installed in the glazed shaft on the northern side of the test tower. Thanks to its aerodynamic cladding, it will be able to travel at a speed of up to 8 m/s, i.e. 28.8 km/h.

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As the panoramic cab...

was preassembled at thyssenkrupp Aufzugswerke in Neuhausen auf den Fildern, it was protected by a steel frame during truck transportation.

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The elevator cab...

hangs above the future entrance area of the test tower.

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Together the elevator...

technicians and crane operator ensure that the cab of the visitor elevator is lifted into the shaft without any damage.

4

The panoramic cab...

has been positioned in the shaft and can now be prepared for operation. Visitors will then be able to travel up to a height of 232 meters without having to climb the roughly 1,700 stairs.

Technologies for the
cities of tomorrow

Rottweil’s new 246-meter tall elevator test tower is specifically designed with the future in mind. With 12 testing shafts housed within its 21-meter diameter shell, engineers can test elevator speeds of up to a mind-boggling 18 meters per second. The tower firmly places Rottweil at the very hub of future urban vertical transportation.

Three shafts, each with a height of 100 meters, are dedicated to testing the innovative new TWIN and MULTI systems. The MULTI elevator is the realization of a dream of operating multiple cabins simultaneously. It introduces „mag-lev“ train technology to the elevator industry, increases shaft transport capacity by up to 50 percent, and dramatically reduces the elevator footprint in buildings.

As high-rise buildings grow ever taller, the demands on elevator technology are rapidly increasing.
The elevators of tomorrow will be far faster and more complex than at present, and they will certainly rely on revolutionary engineering methods never used before.

Planned innovations in Rottweil

MULTI

A new era of vertical (and horizontal) transportation optimizes efficiency while liberating architects to construct more creatively, user-friendly, and higher. Multiple cabins in a single shaft mean passengers would never have to wait more than 15-30 seconds for a lift.